I'm not sure about the wait mode problem but with dress spheres you have to press R1 then select the Job you want to turn into.

A tip about this game... well you get a new game plus mode where you can play it multiple times, so if you miss something you can get it later. Also once you started a new game plus you can go get something, say in chapter 2, then save and soft reset and start another new game plus and you'll have that item even without finishing the game again.